Expanding usage of electronic microcircuits has resulted in a rapid advance in the art of producing articles in the nature of a metallic micropattern material. Recently developed procedures employ, e.g., a substrate base of silicon covered with an insulating layer of silicon dioxide, and an electron resist covering the silicon dioxide layer, the resist being selectively irradiated with an electron beam in accordance with the micropatterning step to be performed, the irradiated resist being removed to expose the selected area or areas of the silicon dioxide, and metal then being deposited on the exposed area or areas by thin film techniques.
Though such procedures have achieved considerable success, there has been a continuing need not only for decreasing the time required for, e.g., electron beam irradiation but also for an alternative to the depositing steps involved in conventional thin film formation and for an improvement in edge definition of the metallic micropattern.